The lost dimension
by Lilyane.rosem.e
Summary: There were always stories about other dimensions but to think they would be true. Follow Ichigo as she crawls out of the depths of one of these forgotten dimensions and explores the wondrous world of Toriko. The earth has changed so much in her absence she almost can't believe it. Almost.
1. Chapter 1

Updated on 18-2-14

A.N.  
Hello and welcome to my first fanfiction, please read and review so I know if I need to continue.  
I apologize beforehand for my bad grammar and spelling , I am very dyslexic (Yea I had to look that up) , not a native speaker and have no Beta reader. So please bear with me and maybe I will get better over time.  
So now for the disclaim: I own noting. Not Toriko nor Bleach.  
Now on whit the story!

Prologue

There are myths of long lost civilization of the death. They tell us of human souls that after their unfortunate deaths ended up in one of tree worlds. Most people nowadays don't believe in these myths anymore. However now in the blossoming Gourmet Age scientists are beginning to uncover some truth to the myth and are now searching for these lost dimensions. In hope for more incredible foods.

The IGO was the first to discover a dimension. It wasn't at all what they had expected. The first dimension they discovered was what seemed to be a heaven? A heaven for science indeed, there was nothing there only plain food of the very first evolutions of earth. Which is super interesting seeing as there was almost no food left of these early evolutions.  
No matter the scientific interest the most interesting thing there was the impressive library whit information.

Not inhabited anymore by the current souls were ruins of a maze in which lied this valuable treasure.  
It told the research team of the other dimensions Hell, Hueco Mundo and the current dimensions name, Soul Society.

The information about Soul Society explained a lot.  
Like the complete lack of recognition of what the records called the human world. None of the souls seemed to remember the life they had before they died.

However the most important piece of information they discovered was the records of whole new species, Soul Reapers, Hollows, Arrancar, Vizards, Quincy , Bounts. Some registered extinct like the Bounts some just ending with the end of the register.

The last major event before the abrupt ending of the records was the Bloody War. A war fought by two main groups the Soul Reapers and the Quincy. The Quincy apparently took the war one step further and tried to recruit the Hollow and Arrancar to fight for them.

This was too much for the Soul Reapers to handle so they asked their allies to seal the Hueco Mundo whiteout furtherer notice until the war was over. To protect the balance of life witch would be threatened trough overage souls in the Hueco Mundo (which came there because new born hollows are transported there automatically). The allies locked themselves inside the Heuco Mundo.

This move likely was the doom of both races, the Soul Reapers lost the war and were all killed which led to a decrease in spiritual energy on earth. Whit as consequences the downfall of the Quincy who needed this energy to support their ability and culture.

What puzzled the scientists the most was the increase in spiritual energy several years after the extinction of the Quincy without any proof that the biggest haven of spiritual energy Hueco Mundo was opened.

So looking for answers and wanting to revive of the old balance of life the Soul Reapers tried so hard to protect. The scientists set out for the Hueco Mundo…

And this is the last ever heard from the research group. It was later discovered that they had been successful in restoring the balance of life but were eaten in the process.

The IGO alarmed by this development decided that information about het afterlife was not save to know for the general population and hid the experiment and all the complications that followed from the release of the hollows.  
It was hard at first but the workload gradually lessened and it was assumed the Soul Reapers had returned to fight the treat of the Hollows en protect the balance of life.

And indeed the Soul Reapers had returned but not on their own power. The allies of the old Soul Society were also freed and realizing what a trouble the world was in they decided to help the development of the new Soul Reapers along.  
But after having been fully restored to their former glory the Soul Reapers turned against the allies after having discovered they were part Hollow and traitors.

So the allies fled once again from Soul Society and came to the human world where they decided to split up for a undetermined period of time.

And so it was that Ichigo returned to the human world. Luckily Urahara improved his Gigai making skill so she was able to completely blend in with the crowd and still have Zangetsu out.

So now for the first order of business build up a new life and get accustomed to this new earth. For the first time she felt what it would hat been like for the Soul Reapers in her time. Being stranded in a complete Alien environment. The earth had changed a lot!

Thank you for reading! Please review. 


	2. Chapter 2

A.N.1  
For everyone who hadn't already noticed yes Ichigo is a girl.  
Disclaimer: If I owned Bleach or Toriko Ichigo and Komatsu would be girls.  
A.N.2  
Komatsu won't be a girl in this story despite the disclaimer.

Chapter 1

And here Ichigo was, stranded in a new world at least it looked new enough to be one. She shouldn't be so surprised that it had changed. It had been two thousand years since she had left the human world after all.

But she didn't think it would change so much. Sure she recognized some parts of it but more like random parts stuck together. Like the gigantic tree next to her which had what looked like raw meat as leaves and was litters with tiny purple flowers. She had no idea what to think of the vegetation here. Even the soil was different.

What surprised her more was the complete lack of human noises in the vacancy. The living in her time were noisy and dominated the whole world. There was never such piece quiet as here.

Maybe the human race had become less dominant caused by the mass extinction of souls by the hands of the Quincy. Which brings her to another point the spiritual energy in the air was overflowing!

There was more spiritual energy than she had ever felt before on earth not even in Karakura Town. The earth shouldn't be flourishing with life as it is… unless it has shrunk in size! But that would be impossible.

With her mind made up over what she wanted to know. Ichigo set out for the closest human establishment, which was admirably pretty far away.

She used flash-step to travel quickly through the weird forest type environment, she started to notice some weird animals. 'I guess they belong to the new earths developments.' She thought as she raced past them. An interesting thing about them is that there is much variation in the levels of Spiritual energy they possess.

When the vegetation started slowly becoming less dense. Ichigo realized that she needed to slow down in order not to stand out among the other human.

As she shot out of the vegetation the first thing Ichigo saw was a school? Judging from the huge sign saying "Nakaume Gourmet School" it's a yes. Deciding to go inside to ask about the current world Ichigo walked past the large wooden front door.

Inside was a grand hallway complete with a reception, decorative plants and a beautiful stained glass window. Walking up to the reception, thinking about the best questions to ask the girl sitting at there, she missed the small woman standing in her path.

Ichigo collided head on with the woman and knocked her down. Reacting quickly she hurriedly knelt down next to the older looking woman. "Are you alright?" Ichigo asked her while helping her up.  
"Oh, I am quite alright my dear. But can I ask you who you are? I have never seen you here before."  
"Ah… um… My name is Kurosaki Ichigo, I am not exactly from around here so I was planning on asking for directions." Ichigo responded quickly. "Oh? Is that so… I am sure I could give you some directions to wherever you are going. But I have to ask you why do you have two names?" Sumire said.

"Ehhh… You don't know it Kurosaki is my family name and Ichigo my given. Can I ask your name?" "I am quite surprised you don't know I am pretty famous you know. So a family name yes? That is a pretty out dated concept. It hasn't been used in ages, people wanted more freedom to create a name of their own so the family name was dropped. You really aren't from around here are you?" Sumire asked pityingly. Already expecting a negative answer.

Ichigo knowing that she had already been found out partly decided to make up quick cover up. "Yeah, I am not from around here. I am actually an orphan and came her looking for education and a better future." Sumire knew that the girl wasn't being true full but couldn't find it in her hearth to send her away like that. Looking as lost as she was. "You should know I don't normally do this but I am going to accept you in this school. I will expect you to do well like any other student. Please come along to my office and I will arrange all the paper work around your arrival."

Walking along one of the corridors and up the stairs they went up to Sumire's office.  
Ichigo not quite sure what to think of the sudden change of plans yet was walking the corridor somewhat hesitantly. Not her normal confident step, she was not in her element at all. 'What have I gotten myself in now! I just know somewhere the others are watching me and laughing.'

Sumire meanwhile had other things on her mind. 'She is a curious creature, extraordinary even almost everyone had forgotten about family names! And just look at her clothes their strange and old looking even in these times. I do not think her story is sound, but she is a sweet enough girl and seems to be meaning well. So the important thing now is to keep her close do discover what she really wants.'

"So this school… What exactly do you teach?"  
"What, you don't know? Well I guess that was to be expected since you didn't knew me and are not from here... The sign outside says "Nakaume Gourmet School" so take a guess." Sumire says with lights of merit in her eyes.  
"Please don't say cooking." Ichigo begs.  
"You got that right! Don't worry girl this is one of the best chefs schools in the world! I have got great expectations of you!" Says Sumire as they have reached the door of her office. "Let's get the paperwork started so I can introduce you to the other students."  
'What have I gotten myself into now?' "Yeah, lets… sight"

Thank you for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

A.N.  
Heya! I am updating again. I am sure I will slow down eventually but for now, Yay!  
"Ichigo" = speaking  
'Ichigo' = thinking  
Disclaimer: I do not own toriko or Bleach, I am not that talented, sadly.

Chapter 2

Sitting Mrs. Sumire's office Ichigo tried to calculate the possibility she was going to get out of this mess. Only to come up with a totally unsatisfying answer of zero.

"So I assume you don't have any identification or anything else that proves you are a citizen here?"  
"No I don't have any." Ichigo says the possibility of escape is look a lot better now.  
"It's fine I will arrange something, I will report you as orphan and take you in myself…" Sumire said to herself thoughtfully.

"Whaaaaa… Why would you take me in! You don't know anything about me, not even if I can cook." Ichigo screamed half panicking. This was really not going her way.

"Well as a newly found orphan I will have to report you by the IGO to get you citizenship. Being the people they are the IGO doesn't trust just any wandering teenager to tell the truth… So they will want someone to keep an eye on you. And who better than the one person that found you."

"Still adopting, isn't this a bit too fast? Like I said you don't know me Mrs. Sumire, and I don't know anything about you."

"Well it is a bit blunt yes but I always wanted a daughter you see. I have a son, I even named this school after him. But I always wanted a daughter to spoil. You see my husband died shortly after Nakaume was born. He was a Bishokuya and was one day just killed on the job, a prominent risk in the profession. He never gave me a second child, you however look a lot like me in my youth so it isn't hard to imagine you as my own child. And please do call me Sumire"

"Okay, Sumire. But really adoption? Aren't I a little too old for that with my 16 '2016 actually' years of age? Plus even if you and I decide to go thought with this what will you tell your son?"

"It will be fine Ichigo-chan, if you don't want to be adopted now we can wait with it until you are settled down here. I will however report the IGO of your arrival and please don't use your family name anymore it makes you look suspicious." Sumire says. "Now that that is out of the way let me lead you to were you will be staying."

"I guess that will be alright…" Ichigo says as she begins to get up to leave the room with Sumire. "by the way were will I be staying? And what will I do about school money, or clothes?"

"You will be staying at the girls dorm, this school stands pretty isolated so pupils stay in the dorms next to the school. As for lesson material we have most of it here at school. Most pupil however prefer to bring their own equipment… Seeing as you only have one oversized kitchen knife on you back we will have to go to Gourmet city to buy you more equipment. Your clothes is the real problem however you really stand out in that weird white tattered outfit of yours. We must get you a decent uniform and some normal clothes." Sumire tells the girl while walking across the grassy fields strait to the dorms.

The dorms were two massive buildings the one on the left light blue, on the right a slight pink color.  
The path leading down from the school to the dorms split in two right before the buildings. The sign pointing to the pink building saying girls.  
The pink girls dorm was admirably pretty. Prettier than the boys' their building which told Ichigo that human prejudice against gender hadn't disappeared yet.

It may have been pink on the outside but the interior was a neutral white. Walking in the main hallway Ichigo saw the building was split in two sides. On one side a corridor with numerous door, probably leading to the dorm rooms, and a stairway leading to the upstairs. On the other side Ichigo saw a glimpse of what looks like a massive kitchen with a few girls working hard in it.

They went up to the corridor of the dorms and up the stairs. Until they came to stand in front of room 102.

"That is going to cost a lot of money isn't it. How am I ever going to repay that?"

"You won't have to repay it if you become my child, and for now I am happy to lend it to you. You can always repay me when you become a famous chef!"

"How do you know I would ever be a chef let alone famous! I don't even know if I can cook my little sister always did all the cooking at home."

"You have a little sister? Where is she now? I hope you didn't just leave her to fend for herself! And of course you will become a famous chef. The ingredients like you. I could sense it the moment I saw you."

"Of course I didn't leave her to fend for herself, the twins died a long time ago. I don't want to talk about it. How do you sense ingredients, it seems like a weird concept to me."

"I am sorry to hear that, you have my condolence. Each and every ingredient has a voice, not a voice like yours that you can hear talking. But an inner voice that guides skillful chefs, on how to prepare them the best. The ingredients felt like they were singing around you."

"But I don't feel or hear anything!" Ichigo says confused.

"Your sense will develop over time as you practice cooking, what is important now is to focus on your studies." Sumire says as she opens the door of room 102.

The door opens and Ichigo could her it squeak as a large cloud of dust is blown away.

"It hasn't been used in a while… I will give some of the girls the task to clean it up a bit. That way we can step out for a moment and get you the stuff you need. What do you think?"

"I think it's fine. It is a decent size room with great view of the with great view of the school. I like it!"

Thank you for reading!


	4. Chapter 4

A.N.  
Ichigo is a bit or a lot O.O.C. for a few reasons: one this is my first story, two he is a girl now and tree she hasn't had any contact with anyone else than the people that were locked up in the Hueco Mundo.  
I would like to thank TheAnimeWriterLover for being my first reviewer. I really appreciate it.  
Disclaimer: I don't own Toriko or Bleach.

Chapter 3

On the way to Gourmet Town Ichigo found herself contemplating the recent developments in her life. 'She and her friends had been chased from Soul Society. Then as she had been preparing to start her life anew she bumped into Sumire, literally! It wasn't all bad thought. Yes Sumire is a bit pushy but she is also a really nice person and meant well. Plus her life as of now seemed to run smoothly. So she could kick back and relax a bit.

The soul reapers wouldn't see them as a priority so she wouldn't have to be overly careful. But major hollow hunting like she had done in the past.

Luckily Sumire thinks that Zangetsu is a kitchen knife, instead of a full blown sword.

The old man wasn't too pleased about this new development. He however let it slide in favor of her happiness, she was clearly regaining again with the help of Sumire after the betrayal of the Soul Reapers. Her Hollow just had a great time at the expense of Zangetsu she had been laughing for at least an hour after the remark was made.

She had completely forgotten her gigai shows Zangetsu. What would have been ideal for traveling like she planned. However now she had found a roof above her head it was a bit impractical. She had better buy a real kitchen knife so she wouldn't have to use Zangetsu all that much.

She wondered how the others were doing. Were they all well on their way on being settled on this new (and slightly improved judging from the increase in food quality) earth? She was pretty sure Urahara had already set up that stupid shop of his. He is fast like that.'

"…chigo, Ichigo! Can you hear me!"  
"Yes, what is it Sumire!?"  
"You were just spacing out for such a long time. We are here already."

'Gourmet Town, impressive. Impressive indeed! But what was more impressive was the amount of time she had managed to space out. A whole 2hour walk to the city!'

"I must say I am impressed, it's very… colorful. There are so many signs for food, it makes it hard to see the book and clothes stores." Ichigo said as she desperately tried to look past the enormous crowd of people trying to get into Gourmet town.

The crowd was already beginning to splitting like the red sea at the sight of Sumire to let her pass.

Having come though the security with a little help from Sumire's fame. They were now standing in the center town.

"We are going to the main warehouse, there we will probably find everything we need." Sumire said sounding confident about her decision.

They were getting quite an audience standing there in the center of the town. Most of the glances admiring obviously meant for Sumire. Also some questioning half afraid looks for Ichigo. She felt really vulnerable standing there next to Sumire in this unfamiliar town. She realized that she really stood out in her torn white clothes and Zangetsu on her back. She quickly walked along with Sumire and got even more weird glances from people who couldn't believe that she was in such famous company.

"Come on walk along. We need to get you cleaned up so clothes shopping comes first."

They walked in the warehouse and went straight to the clothes selection were Sumire immediately began throwing clothes at her to try on.  
After what seemed like hours and a lot of arguing back and forth. Ichigo was settled with 3 uniforms a white shirt and white pants, 2 aprons white with black straps, and 2 sets free time clothes, 1 piece suit a black pencil skirt and jacked with a white blouse for special occasions, some underwear and 2 pair of shoes heels to match the suit and the other pair for common wear.

Ichigo now wearing colorful shirt with black skinny jeans was attracting a lot less attention than before. For which she was grateful. However that relieve was short lived as she had to carry all the bags as they continued shopping.

One kitchen knife several books and cooking ingredients later. Ichigo was staggering home with Sumire walking next to her telling her about the gourmet age. After it became apparent Ichigo knew nothing about it.

The long walk back to Nakaume Gourmet school wasn't so bad with all the talk involved. Sumire had amazing stories about this Acacia and his partner Froze. That is how Ichigo discovered another aspect of this world. The chef and Bishokuya partnership, it was an interesting concept. She wondered if she ever became as famous as Sumire predicted would she ever be in a combo? And if so with whom?

Walking up to the dorms Ichigo was exhausted from the long day. She had just delivered the ingredients to the stock room and was now bringing her stuff up to her room.

Entering room 102 Ichigo saw it was clean. The girls had done a good job, she would have to thank them later. She began to store her clothes in the closet, books on the shelves, knife on her bureau and Zangetsu in the corner of the room propped up against the wall.

She decided that it would be smart to go to bed early. Tomorrow would be a long day. True Sumire had sorted everything out for her but there was still a lot of paperwork to come.

Thank you for reading! Please review!


	5. Chapter 5

A.N.  
Although Ichigo has gotten stronger in the 2000 years she was locked up she still hasn't the control over her Reiatsu and sensing thereof she should have.  
Everyone thinks that Zangetsu is a kitchen knife. Don't get me wrong he is certainly not pleased about being demoted to a kitchen knife. He just prefers Ichigo's happiness and if this is where she will be happy he will endure for her.  
Disclaimer: I don't own Toriko or Bleach, otherwise I wouldn't need to write fanfiction now would I?

Chapter 4

Waking up in her new dorm room Ichigo felt a bit disoriented. Until she remembered were she was and what she was supposed to be doing today.  
She had to meet the member of the IGO visiting the school to finalize the paperwork making her a citizen here and thus able to study and live.

Shooting out of her bed she started making preparations for the upcoming day. She would wear her new suit for the meeting with the IGO official but also set out one of her uniforms for the meeting with Sumire's son that would come after the meeting.

She shot in her suit and her new heels that were a bit high for her liking bit if she didn't try to run or do something equally stupid she would manage the whole meeting in them.

Ichigo went out of the dorms, on her way to Sumire's office where they would meet the IGO official.  
Walking through the school she noticed the lessons had already started so no one was in the hallway. This was practical for getting where she needed to be but a bit unpractical because she had been here since yesterday and still had not met anyone except Sumire.

Walking up to Sumire's office and knocking on the door made Ichigo think about way back when she still was a normal teenager. She would often get called headmaster of Karakura High because of her habit of getting in trouble with neighborhood tugs. She really hoped none of the students here interpreted her orange hair as offensive.

"Come in!" Ichigo heard Sumire calling from the other side of the door so she entered the room. On the other side of the door were Sumire naturally and a very boring looking man probably the IGO official.

"Hello my name is Naroid, I am the Public Relations Bureau Director of the IGO. I see you are already beginning to settle here. That is good, it does us well to see that a future citizen is settling in well. Now I have a few questions to ask before we finalize the papers."

"Okay, that is a pretty high ranking you got there, why did they send someone so important to interview me?" Ichigo asked suspiciously.

"We are very concerned about our chefs. So when Sumire-sama send us a message saying she wanted to become temporary guardian and maybe later adopt a total stranger, unknown to the IGO the higher-ups became worried and send me to check if you weren't some charlatan."

"Nice to know the IGO worries about its people so much." Ichigo replayed somewhat sarcastically.

"Shall we move on to the questions, Ichigo has to meet a student later today and I would like not to delay her too much" Sumire asked.

"Oh… Right… Ahh… The first question… " Mr. Naroid said. "How is your cooking ability?"  
"The ingredients love her I can hear it. All I have to do is teach her, she doesn't have much experience." Sumire quickly answered for Ichigo.

"Okay…?" Mr. Naroid said not completely sure if it was alright to let Sumire answer for the girl but letting it slide because she would become her future guardian. "Why did you decide to come here?"

"Oh… She came here to ask for direction. I however couldn't let such a talented individual escape."

"Is that so?" Mr. Naroid said while looking at Ichigo for confirmation.

"Yes, I was asking for directions. I wanted to go to a close by town to look for someone who would employ me." Ichigo said quickly to cover up that she really hadn't had any reason for being at the school.

A few questions later Mr. Naroid left. Saying everything went well and she could retrieve her Gourmet ID and passport in a week's time at Gourmet Town in the IGO civil service building.

Having finished Ichigo rushed back to her dorm room to change her clothes. Done changing her clothes she rushed over to the main hall to meet up with Nakaume Sumire's son. Who was going to introduce her to the school and its pupils.

Once in the main hall Ichigo started to look around for them. Which was a difficult task because it was recess time and students were milling around left and right.

"Hello, are you Ichigo?" Ichigo heard a voice coming from behind her.

"Ahhg! Don't sneak up to me like that! Your Nakaume-san right? How did you know it was me?" Ichigo replied shocked.

"Yes, I am Nakaume, I am sorry for scaring you.  
Sumire told me to look for a girl with orange hair and a big kitchen knife on her back. She didn't lie you knife is really huge, what do you need such a big knife for?"

"Ah right nice to meet you guys. I need this knife for uhm… cutting?" Ichigo said.

"Oh… I see. Tell me what you would like to know about the school and we will start from there explaining everything to you."

"Sounds good, could you give me a tour of the building an tell me about what classes I will get?"

"Yeah sure. The building may seem a little small for such a grand and outstanding Gourmet school but this is only because the older years are often not here. They are more likely to be found at the restaurant in the city where they work on the second part of their education there.  
Sumire is also at the restaurant most of the time she only actuary is here every Monday and Tuesday.  
The study involves 2 parts. The first part aims toward solidifying you basic cooking skills, have a lot of subjects like Gourmet history, knife skills, customer service, food knowledge, special tools management, preparation, herbs & spices, math and biology. This part takes 3 years to complete. The second part is all about gathering experience as a chef. It usually takes 1 to 5 years for the students to get implode or start a shop of their own from this position."

While talking Nakaume had already showed Ichigo all of the classrooms, kitchen, the storage rooms, canteen and the girls toilets. With all the important bits covered they went to sit in the courtyard. Nakaume waved 2 boys from the other side of the courtyard over.

"Ichigo, this are my friends Komatsu and Ootake. I hope we will all get along well. Feel free to ask me or them about anything involving schoolwork or some other thing that bothers you."

Both of the boys greeted her and she said Hello in return.

With the introduction done it looked like it was going to be an interesting few years for Ichigo.

Thank you for reading! Please review! Feel free to point out any mistakes I have made but please be nice about it. I don't need you just to point out how bad I am at Spelling and Grammar, I have no delusions about it.


	6. Chapter 6

A.N.  
I will probably go back sometimes and fix the earlier chapters as much as I can. So if a chapter is down it is probably because I am trying to fix it.  
Disclaimer: I don't own Toriko or Bleach

Chapter 5

It had been a few months since Ichigo had arrived at Nakaume Gourmet school and she was doing surprisingly well. She liked cooking more than she ever thought she would and was good at it too. It didn't take long for her to catch up the rest of the pupils with a little help from Nakaume and his friends.  
Ume-chan, Komacchan and Take-chan are really good friends they were a great and support the last few months.

The only thing that bothered Ichigo was her lack of female friend here. She hadn't been able to befriend any of the other girls at the school. Sure they were nice to her but they were more focused on themselves. Instead of making good connections for the future they were more likely to blow you of if they saw you as inferior. Which was unfortunately the case with Ichigo because she started the year late.

Of course this behavior changed as she showed to be really talented. Ichigo being Ichigo couldn't get over the haughtiness those people showed and never became good friend with them. Not like she was friends with the boys.

For now however she had bigger things to concern herself with. It had been almost half a year since she had come to the world of the living so she needed to find Urahara and check in with him.

Knowing Urahara and his eccentric personality he would most likely be hiding in plain sight. What meant he most likely set up shop in Gourmet Town.

With that thought in mind Ichigo set out on the two hour journey to the town. She had made up some excuse about wanting to buy some gourmet case data cards. It was true, she had seen some she liked in the catalogue and they should be on sale now.

The most important part of her journey would still be Urahara. He should be in some suspicious looking alleyway. Ichigo decided that she would first buy her cards and then explore all the suspicious looking alleys of Gourmet town how many could there be in such a proper city?

The Gourmet Department Store was amazing! It wasn't like she hadn't been here before. She just kept forgetting how grand it was in reality. The catalogues she had simply couldn't capture the true magnificence off this place.

She wasn't like Komatsu who didn't even want to go to Gourmet Town until he was like he put it "Fully qualified". Ichigo was always looking out for sales at the department store. She loved the gourmet case data cards because they showed her about all the new ingredients that had evolved in the time she was away.

Ichigo was in a good mood when she started looking for Urahara's shop. She had been able to pick up some really good cards. She even bought some for her friends.

Ichigo wasn't in such a good mood anymore when she had finally found Urahara's shop. Even with all her knowledge about the man he had still been able to place his shop the place she least expected it.

On the exact opposite side of the street were human treasure Setsuno's shop was situated. How had he even managed to buy such an expensive shop space like that!

Ichigo knocked on the door of the shop which looked exactly like it did all those years ago. Which was slightly disturbing and reassuring at the same time.

"Ha, I have been expecting you Ichigo. From your time of arrival I can conclude I did a very good job at hiding my store this time around." Urahara said from the other side of the sliding door. "Please come in."

As if on cue Ichigo slammed open the door looking quite grumpily.

"Urahara! Next time we arrange a meeting at least tell me your whereabouts beforehand! It took me forever to get here. And don't pretend to be clueless about my whereabouts I just know you have been keeping you eye on all of us." Ichigo said angrily.

"Well… if you put it that way there is no way I can deny it. You're the first however to check in so I haven't too much about the others I can tell you accept that they are doing well." Urahara explained happily not in the least bothered by Ichigo's foul mood.  
"You however have been keeping a somewhat higher profile. Your leaking Reiatsu again. I am going to give you some limiters so we don't have any accidents like Orehime and Chad this time around. Have you seen any hollows around lately?"

"Now that you mention it. I haven't seen or felt any lately." Ichigo said alarmed. "Do you think Soul Society has made some kind of weapon for massive hollow destruction?"

"No, no that is not it Soul Society isn't the reason at all for this dramatic decrease in hollow population. It is just the IGO protecting its citizens." Urahara said seriously.

"How could that be normal human don't see spirits!"

"It's the high levels of spiritual energy in the air it is in most cases not enough to give the human supernatural abilities but it is enough to see spirits. That is why there are also few plusses the human contact makes them forget about their regrets so they move on quickly."

"Okay I get it but why tell me this? It doesn't really matter to me that the IGO hunts hollows more efficiently than Soul Society. It just means there is less chance we accidently meet them."

"It actually matters quite a bit. You are now a cook in training so you are listed whit this whit this hollow hunting government."

"So? What of it?"

"I don't think this IGO really knows what hollows and how they work thankfully. However you being part hollow I would like you to be careful with the IGO. You don't want them to turn on us like the Soul Reapers did."

"Your right, I will be careful. Is there anything new you discovered about this world I should know like how the spiritual energy increased whit Quincy's murdering each and every Soul Reaper or why they went extinct if the spiritual energy decreased?"

"I haven't discovered much jet but the things I did discover are pretty interesting.  
First there is the fact that much more time has passed than we thought. The Heuco Mundo was an excellent choice of Aizen to build a fort the time there passes slower than here on earth. The two thousand years we spend there was just one hundredth of the time passage here on earth. The second thing I discovered is that in the 200.000 years we were actually away from here the earth has gotten larger, stands further away from the sun and spins faster. This is why we didn't notice anything out of ordinary about the days whit the higher spinning rate of the earth the days stayed the same length. The third thing is more a guess. I think the Quincy's died out first leaving the earth a void of spiritual energy and then something happened which caused the energy to increase. It is my hypothesis that the increase of spiritual energy and the increase of the earth's mass are linked."

"That a lot to take in. Have you had any time to look into this new phenomenon the Gourmet cells?"

"No I haven't had the time to look into them yet. I only know the basics like that Acacia discovered them in the Gourmet jellyfish."

"Yes I know that too I came to town today to buy it's gourmet case data card. They are very rare so I preordered it."

"Could you give me that card. It would help my research enormously." Urahara begged he hadn't been able to get his hands on one of those cards yet.

"I just told you they are extremely rare and it had to pre order it to get it." Ichigo said a little upset about the prospect of losing her prize so soon.

"Alright you will get your soul phone free of charge and you can have a few of my more rare gourmet cards."

"Hmm… alright we have a deal."

A while later Urahara was a few cards poorer and a great piece of data richer. Looking at the sun he decided that the visit had taken a long enough time. So Urahara did some tweaking on Ichigo's gigai to make it more comfortable and gave her a Soul Phone for untraceable communication before he send Ichigo off back to school.

Thank you for reading! Please Review.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Toriko or Bleach

Chapter 6

"Ume-chan, Komacchan, Take-chan! Look what I got when I went to Gourmet Town! Sadly they didn't have the gourmet jellyfish, said it was bought by some wealthy business man but they gave me these awesome cards to compensate." Ichigo said happily. She had run strait to her friends the moment she got close to the school.

Looking up from the conversation they were having the young chefs in training saw Ichigo walking towards them. Seeing as the warehouse didn't have the gourmet jellyfish this compensation cards had to be really good for Ichigo to react so happy. So whit their interest piqued the trainees walked over to the smiling female.

"What kind of data cards did you get?" Ootake asked her.

"The puffer wale, the Sanzu River Poison Lizard and the Devil Serpent." Ichigo said proudly.

"Ichigo… You do realize that those are all poisonous some even special preparation ingredients. I know our next few lessons are to obtain are all about obtaining a poison license. But it doesn't mean that we can prepare such difficult products right of the bat." Nakaume said nervously not sure how Ichigo would react to the news.

"I know that. The lessons just got me thinking there are so much ingredients in the gourmet age. For most of those ingredients there are plenty of chefs willing and able to prepare them but for some like poisonous ingredients chefs able to prepare them are few and far in between. Sumire always told us that every ingredient has a voice and we should listen to this voice to guide us in cooking them. I feel sorry for all those ingredients that have almost nobody there to listen to them. So I decided to specialize in them" Ichigo said.

"If you know so well what Sumire says you should also know that the ingredient picks the chef, not the other way around." Ootake commented.

"Then I will just have to train extra hard to get excepted by the ingredients." Ichigo said confident of herself. Sumire had said when had she taken her in that the ingredients liked her. Ichigo was confident that with more training she would be a great chef.

"Ichigo has a point there. We shouldn't give up on our dreams just because it seems impossible. We got into one of the greatest cooking schools of the earth. We mustn't give up now. We should train harder to achieve our goals." Komatsu said.

"Your right we came here to chase our dreams! We will become great chefs!" Nakaume cheered.

A chorus of Yeas resounded from the happy chefs in training. They were so absorbed in their little celebration that they totally missed one of the third year walking up to them.  
It came as a surprise when they heard the third year girl clear her throat right behind them.

"you are Ichigo-san right? Sumire Chef asked you to come to her office she said she had important business to discuss." The girls said before she hurried of to her own friends.

"It looks like I got to go. We will talk more later." Ichigo said wondering why Sumire wanted to speaker her all of sudden.

"Okay, we will see you later I suppose." Nakaume said a little sad to see Ichigo go so soon. Although her realized that he would see her later today at dinner time.

Standing in front of Sumire's office made Ichigo nervous. She hadn't had much time to talk to Sumire outside of school matters. It was only the first few weeks after Ichigo's arrival that they had actually talked about Sumire's plans of adopting her. At the time was it too much for Ichigo to handle so she refused to even think about it that first month.  
But after spending more and more time with Nakaume and his friends and hearing all kinds of heartwarming stories about Sumire as a mother she started warming up to the idea.

Sumire's call came from the other side of the door.  
Entering the office the first thing Ichigo saw was a very serious looking Sumire and she started to wonder if this wasn't about the adoption at all. She had been discovered! Sumire was going to betray her! She deeded to get away…

"Ichigo-chan I called you here today to talk about the adoption."  
This one line immediately canceled all thoughts about betrayal and danger of Ichigo.  
"The temporary guardianship I got from the IGO is coming to an end at the end of this month. They are pressuring me to take you in permanently or send you to an orphanage. You don't have to answer right now. However I have to have an answer by the end of the month."

"I don't have to really think about it anymore. I have thought about it long and hard for the past half year and came to the conclusion that I would like you to be my mother Sumire. It is not like you will ever replace my own mother, because even if she has long since left the earth she will always be inside my heart. That being said there is always room for more people in my heart so I would love seeing you as my own mother."

"And more I couldn't wish for my dear." Sumire said affectionately. "Is there anything else you what to talk about to me?"

"Actually there is Sumire, could you search for a mentor for me. I want to study specially cooked ingredients and the like especially poison cooking."

"You like adventure and danger don't you Ichigo-chan. Well… I will see what I can arrange for you. You should know that you can only start individual studies in the second phase of your training. You have to get the basics right before you can move on to something so difficult."

"That's fine, I just want to make sure I get a good teacher. I know for a fact that good chefs in this expertise are hard to find within the IGO. So I want to optimize the chances of finding a good chef by making the window of time greater."

"That is indeed a smart idea. But you should never underestimate the strength of chef notated as 10nth in the IGO chef ranking. Now run along I have something's to arrange." Sumire said.

And arranging Sumire did. Immediately after Ichigo she began writing a letters. This was going to be hard Ichigo-chan was right there were far too few chefs who were skilled enough for this.

Thank you for reading! Please review.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Toriko or Bleach

Chapter 7

It had been tree and a half years since Ichigo had come to the cooking school. She was now supposedly 19 and hadn't grown what was surprisingly not a really big problem considering Komatsu and Nakaume also looked exactly like they did tree years ago.

Ichigo and her friend had all been very successful in finishing the first part of their training. So successful in fact that Komatsu immediately got a job offer at Hotel Gourmet. Ootake left not to long after that to start his own dream restaurant The fairy tale castle.

Ichigo her own death-line was also fast approaching, her dream from tree years ago was coming true. She would finally get a mentor to teach her proper poison cooking.  
Sadly Sumire hadn't been able to find someone within the IGO so it came down to a non IGO member nation. That was also the reason why Ichigo hadn't been able to leave up until now.

The IGO had made a fuss about her finishing her studies in a non-member nation. Saying it was too shocking and dangerous for someone with a innocent mind like hers or something like that. On the bright side she had gotten the best of the best teacher she could get. Plus after the first year she would return every other month as part of the agreement with the IGO. Who wouldn't allow her to stay there permanently.

"So this is it. You are really going aren't you, Ichigo-chan?" Nakaume asked sad to see her leave.

"Yes, but please don't be sad you will see me next year and I will send and the others as many letters as I can."

"Your right. I shouldn't be sad because you are realizing your dream. It is just I am afraid I am going to be left behind. I know you will write letters but soon you will be too preoccupied with your studies to think about me. It already happened with Take-chan and Komacchan. I am just afraid we will all drift apart and never see each other again." Nakaume said on the edge of crying.

"Ume-chan calm down, you will never lose me I am your sister remember. And maybe is it not so bad that we are going to be apart. See it as a challenge to find your own dream to chase. And when you're done chasing we will all be waiting for you at the cooking festival because that is how good we are going to be!"

"Oh, I hear grand dreams there. The first step to success has always been arriving on time so I highly recommend getting on your train Ichigo, it has already arrived." Sumire said.

They were standing on the train station of the gourmet train that would bring Ichigo to her new mentor. He would be there on the other side to pick Ichigo up guide her to the restaurant and were she would be staying.

Saying her goodbyes to Sumire and Nakaume and some of the other trainees who had all come to bid her farewell. She hurried on to the train and into one of the empty compartments to wave to them one last time before the train finally left.

The train ride overall was pretty okay. However Ichigo noticed that the closer they got to the border of the IGO's influence the more people left. It seemed like the non IGO member nations were not very popular. There were only some gamblers and shady looking people left.

Some of them had tried to hit on her but she made short work of them. Even if she was out of practice she was still Ichigo Kurosaki the gangster of Karakura high. Beating up punks is what she had lived for.  
Naturally after the first few attempts they had let her be.

Arriving at the small town Ichigo was almost the only one getting off. What was a bit weird considering there was a super famous restaurant here. Now that she thinks about it. It wasn't so strange after all taking into account the head chef was meeting her here today. They probably had a day off. At least her mentor wouldn't have any trouble finding her. Certainly not if Sumire had described her to him like she had done with Nakaume.

"Ah you must be Ichigo-san. I am Tairan. Sumire told me about you. You have high ambitions. We will see how far you are willing to go for them. Poison cooking is hard you know I have seen many people quit because it was too hard for them. Some have even died making stupid mistakes. That being said Sumire highly recommended you so you must be somewhat capable."

Tairan was a very serious man. He was tall dark skinned with quite a few scars on his face. Ichigo knew Tairan would have a very down to earth personality but to think that he would be this frank about the dangers of poison cooking surprised her. On the other hand it is only for the best to scare of those weak of mind.  
Ichigo had never been weak of mind, she had never let anyone stop her from what she had set out to do and she wasn't planning on giving in now.

"Yes, my name is Ichigo. I came here to learn poison cooking and there is nothing that is going to stop me from learning not even you Tiaran-sensei."

"Now that is a mentality I like. Please call me Tiaran calling me a teacher just doesn't feel right for me. I am normally not in the whole teaching business. Just don't do anything stupid and maybe you will live to see the end of this. Come on I will show you where the shop is and where you will live."

It seemed like she had said something good because Tairan seemed to be in a much better mood now. The walk to the restaurant was pleasant. They made a little small talk and it seemed like they would get along just fine in the near future.

Thank you for reading! Please review.

A.N.  
I couldn't find were Tairan lives or where his shop is. I don't believe it is mentioned but if you do know please share.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own Toriko or Bleach

Chapter 8

Tairan's restaurant was strange place. It had a big kitchen with all kinds of tools for specialized poison removal, the costumers area looked inviting and homely and there was a small counter that sold safely prepaid ingredients.  
The shop wasn't big like Ichigo had expected and seen time and time again with other famous chefs. It wasn't at all what she had expected from such a serious person as Tairan she had thought that with all his passion for his profession the restaurant would be bigger.

It wasn't like Tairan didn't want a bigger shop, once upon a time it had been his dream just like Ichigo to share these ingredients with the world. However the world was scared and the chefs weren't capable enough. So Tairan kept his dreams small and opened his own restaurant the poison cuisine specialist shop 'Nest of Poison' here.

Which now that Tairan was well known and had a good name was quite popular so popular in fact that it had a waiting list with people on it for the next few years. The costumers helped but it wasn't enough to expand there weren't enough chefs with the proper experience willing to work for him.

If Ichigo had to guess she would say this lack of passion for the poisonous ingredients had a big part in her getting excepted as a student by such a high ranking chef. They wouldn't normally teach a greenhorn like her.

There was also the matter of where she would be living. Ichigo would have to stay in Tairan's own house. She couldn't get a house here herself because she isn't a citizen here. Tairan had offered his guest room for her to stay in.  
What to be honest wasn't a bad deal at all and it wasn't like she suspected he would peep on her or something like that.

But the fact stayed that this is a non IGO member nation which meant the IGO would not be able to hunt hollows here. She had to do it herself. What would heighten the possibility of the Soul Society finding her. Even aside from attracting the odd soul reaper she would definitely attract a lot of hollows what would endanger Tairan even more.

They had had a big fight about the housing issue which had ended with Tairan threatening to end Ichigo's apprenticeship if she didn't stop whining about the housing.  
In the end Ichigo had no choice but to just except her miserable fate and hope her luck would not screw her over this time around.

As it turned out Ichigo's hope wasn't futile for once. She had made almost a whole year now whiteout accident.

In a week she would finally return to Sumire's school and hopefully see Nakaume once again. She realized that he probably already had a job and would not have as much time for her. But she didn't care and would just be happy to finally see him again.

Tairan and Ichigo had built a great relationship in the few months she had been at Tairan's shop. For a first time teacher his teaching was excellent. Also Tairan enjoyed having someone around as passionate about poison cooking as himself.

"I noticed you are already busy packing your stuff, eager to leave me aren't you." Tairan joked with a little sadness in his voice. They were in the kitchen making preparations for the upcoming day.

"You know you don't have to be sad you know I will be back next month. I have lots yet to learn from you. I am even leaving some of my clothes here." Ichigo said softly. she too was a little sad leaving her new friend. But she also had her friends back home to think about.

"I know you will return but I also know what will happen in those months that you are not here. The IGO will try to persuade you into taking a job there as soon as they think you are qualified enough. They don't want to lose any promising individual like you. True they don't me as a treat to you but they do see this country as a treat."

"You know I could always ask a working permit here and come here to work for you. If it upsets you so much to see me get a job somewhere else. I like you well enough and I'm sure I can convince Sumire to help me."

"If I could I would take you in as an employee myself, you know that. I just think that this is not the way you have to let go some time go your own way and discover your own techniques. I wouldn't want to take away your chances of becoming a greater chef than me. I heard you had dreams of all sorts of other ingredients not necessarily poisonous.  
Naturally the time you have to leave hasn't come yet. We still have many years and knowledge ahead of us. However I can't let you settle for my shop."

"Okay, okay I will look around for a decent job just not too soon and even if I am not your apprentice anymore I will visit. Promise?"

"Promise." Tairan said firmly glad that he would not have to miss Ichigo despite his believes. And above all relieved she wouldn't leave him before she was truly ready.

After that heavy subject they worked in silence until it was time to go home. Like always they walked together to Tairan's house they had already eaten at the restaurant and like always Ichigo went through her evening routine. Consisted of getting ready for bed laying down in sleeping position and leaving her gigai.

Once she was out she went hollow hunting until 2 hours before dawn and after that catch a few hours of sleep before the working day. The routine was a little more intensive than she had gotten used to at school, luckily the death didn't need as much sleep. So it wasn't really a problem.

Absorbed in her routine Ichigo didn't notice Tairan who had come up to her room and was now watching trough the crack of the door. Eyes big with wonder and disbelieve Tairan watched as Ichigo seemingly cloned herself after which her clone jumped out of the window and disappeared in the night.

Curious he walked in the room to examine the Ichigo that seemed to be left behind and appeared to be sleeping. On closer inspection it became clear Ichigo wasn't sleeping at all. She was death. This freaked Tairan out. His only pupil was suddenly death. Her soul had run away.

He knew that when people died their souls sometimes couldn't find the way to the afterlife and hung around for a while before disappearing. But this was totally different Ichigo's soul was wearing totally different clothes and seemed to know what she was doing. It didn't at all match the stories of spirits he had heard.

He didn't know what he was supposed to do or even what was happening.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Toriko

Chapter 9

Tairan realized he should probably just get up and call the general practitioner to confirm Ichigo's death and then phone Sumire to tell her the sad news. But he didn't. He waited, desperately hoping Ichigo's run away soul would miraculously return.

Her soul was acting so weird upon leaving the room. It wouldn't be too weird to think that she would also return. Or so he had convinced himself. Too shocked to realize the ridicule of his own line of thoughts. Deaths cold embrace is forever, no returning.

On Ichigo's end it was a whole other story. She was eagerly cutting away at all the hollows in the vicinity trying to get as many of them as possible. The more she cut down now the less emergency toilet brakes she would need to cover for left over hollow from last night.

Hollows are normally highly nocturnal. This was largely due to the eternal darkness in the Hueco Mundo. This was not to say that they didn't come out at day. They were hollows after all. Hollow were attracted by reiatsu, reiatsu she was producing in this case. That's why it was top priority to purify as many hollows as possible at night so there would be less at daytime.

During all her cut and slice and dice work Ichigo's thoughts started to wander. As she found they did they did more often nowadays. It had been increasing ever since she had left the Hueco Mundo. She supposed it had to do with the critical eye of the general public that could now see her at long last.

This world had the strong belief that the cooking of food made humans what they were. What distinguished them form the animals.  
She supposed this made her a real monster, she ate souls! Not that there was anything other to eat back in the Hueco Mundo. Even Urahara had to eat souls there to survive.

Not that that made him a hollow or anything.  
It is simple really. Any soul has the potential to eat other souls given it has a strong enough reiryoku of its own. The thing that distinguishes hollows from soul reapers is the soul reapers ability to purify souls in its own body by means of their Zanpakuto. And the obvious unsatisfiable hunger of the unevolved hollows.

Eating souls was a necessity for them to survive powerful souls needed to eat in contrary to the really weak souls. But did it make them animals because they did't to cook their food. Wasn't it more monstrous to cook hollows and take pleasure in eating souls.

Cannibalism was outlawed everywhere now.  
But it was just this that made her survive the unforgiving and cold Hueco Mundo. It was never like she truly enjoyed eating other hollows or that she would ever eat a plus soul. But the fact stayed that she was this cannibal even if it was just to purify souls and survive herself. She wondered if the people here could ever see it that way. As an act of protection instead of an act of bloodlust.

It was after all that was what she had been trapped for in the Hueco Mundo. To protect the soul balance at any cost. Even if she had to eat hollows herself to survive.

Looking up at the sky Ichigo saw that time went by faster when you were deep in thoughts. She killed the last hollow off quickly and hurried of to Tairan's house.

Getting to the house she was relieved to see that the lights were still off. It was the longest she had ever been away from her gigai and she had been worried that Tairan might discover her.

Thanking her lucky star for this. She quickly slipped inside went back inside her body and closed her eyes. Ready for a well-deserved night sleep.

"So you really came back... What are you Ichigo?"

"Whaaaaa! Tairan what are you doing in my room!"

"I was waiting for your soul to come back. You were death."

"That is just ridiculous souls don't escape their bodies and come back. The death stay death."

"That's why I asked you what are you Ichigo. You can't be human.  
Don't worry there are many weird humanoid creatures in this world that we can live with in harmony. I just want you to tell me what you are."

"You don't understand Tairan it is not like it is my own secret to keep this is about a whole species. I can't just tell you without their consent."

"Okay then contact them. We can't go on like this with you keeping so much secrets form me, form everyone. Trust is an important thing in this (any) line of work. And if you can't even tell me what you are how can I trust you?"

"Maybe your right. Give me a minute and I will contact someone. He will know what to do." With that Ichigo grabbed her soul phone form under the covers of her bed and dialed Urahara's no Kisuke's number. She had to get used to that. Only given names.

"Hello, Kisuke speaking. What can I do for you."  
"Hey Kisuke, it's Ichigo. I have a problem… I have been discovered. Don't worry it's not the soul reapers, it's my mentor… Can I tell him about us, the afterlife?"  
"(Sight), I suppose you can tell him a bit just enough to know what we are, if you trust him that much. I can't ask the others what they think about it on such short notice so don't use anyone's name! I trust your judgment."  
"Right… goodnight Kisuke."  
"Goodnight to you too, Ichigo."

"I got permission… sort of… So ask away and I see what I can answer."

"So what are you?"

"A better question is 'What did you become?' and the answer to that question is, I became a vizard."

Thank you for reading. Please review!


	11. Chapter 11

A.N.  
My longest chapter jet! And it was a real pain to write… so don't expect another chapter this long in a while. I like keeping them around a 1000 words.

Also some of you (me) might be glad to know that after the next chapter we are going to finally move on to the canon (I am going to change some things) of the Toriko series. (By the way I am mad about what has happened to the anime so I am largely going to follow the manga for the story line.)

I also have one thing to ask you. I myself like reading romance stories. However as you should all know this is my first story so I have no experience in writing it. What I like to know is would you like me to try and write a romantic pairing in this story? Your answer might or might not sway my choice to do this, it depends all on how convincing you are.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or Toriko.

Chapter 10

"When a person dies it soul chain brakes.  
There are basically two things that can happen at this point. One the souls directly goes off to the afterlife or it gets stuck here in the human world. Those are the kind of spirits you normally see floating around. These floating spirits are calls plusses and gradually find their own way across or through some medium.

These mediums across are provided by the souls that have already crossed. These souls are mostly found in one of two afterlives the Soul Society and the Hueco Mundo, there is also a third dimension Hell but that is a place for the sinners of earth and that kind of folk helps no one.  
In Soul Society live the soul reaper and normal plus souls. In the Hueco Mundo live hollows.

Ever since the beginning of time the hollows and soul reaper have fought.

The hollows are the souls of humans and animals who stay behind on earth and gradually transformed into a hollow as their left over soul chain rots away their hearths. These hollows eat other souls to fill the gap where once their heart was. However hollows have no way to send of the souls they eat to the cycle of rebirth so they clutter souls like crazy.

This threatened the balance of life and the lives of all the plusses so all the strong plusses united and formed what nowadays is known as the Gotei 13. A military association with as main purpose securing safety for the plus souls keeping the soul balance by destroying hollow and ferrying wandering plusses to Soul Society.  
For this honorable quest they were gifted a weapon by the spirit king. The Zanpakto, a sword formed from the soul of its bearer.

For a while this went well.  
The soul balance was restored and the soul reapers thrived. However after many years thing began to go wrong, more and more souls disappeared form the cycle of reincarnation. It was the rise of a new race a human race destined to be the earths final downfall, the quincy. They were at first a small group of humans that had heightened spiritual powers. The quincy's had found a way to practice their own war against hollows. However their techniques caused the souls that were once hollow to disappear forever form the cycle of reincarnation.

The soul reapers saw this problem and at first tried to convince the quincy they were wrong, that they had to stop destroying souls the way they did. But they wouldn't give in so in the end the soul society saw no other way than to completely vanquish the quincy.

And they did the quincy were hunted until the last of them. After this cruel deed Soul Society became wary of outside influences . Time began to stand still there as the human world flourished and evolved further also the hatred for the hollow who caused so much trouble for them grew. Soul Society became bitter.

In all this bitternes a young boy arose. He was powerful and ambitious and believed the ultimate power was in transcendent creatures. Souls both hollow and soul reaper. He was Aizen Sousuke.

Aizen was a curious boy, at a young age he had entered the ranks of the soul reapers. He escalated in their ranks quickly. Once in a high enough rank he started doing research on everything he could find on hollow an soul reaper biology.

Aizen's research proved fruitful. He produced his very own hogyoku. A stone designed to dissolve the boundaries between hollows and soul reapers. However it was incomplete. It agonized Aizen to know he almost had it and still could not reach full potential. So he went back to his trusted books to look for anything that could help.

In his research Aizen came upon many names of scientists before him. Who all had done research on this subject. All of them had failed or were stopped in their research by higher-ups who got scared.

One name however seemed to stick out 'Urahara Kisuke' one of the current captains of the Gotei 13. Urahara had done excessive research before being banned from the subject. Knowing the man's stubbornness. Aizen suspected Urahara didn't give up.

After a bit of tricky researching on Urahara's person it seemed that yes, he hadn't given up and was now developing his own hogyoku.

Trusting Urahara to go along in this research for him. Aizen began to focus on gathering even more knowledge. On his journey for more knowledge he came on the oldest part of the library where he found the final piece he needed for the ultimate power. A way to enter the kings dimension, a way to take over the spirit king.

Aizen started with testing out his own hogyoku on several hollow until he finally moved on to soul reapers. He forcibly caused some of my future friends to undergo hollowfication.

In an attempt to reverse the damage done to them Urahara used his own hogyoku. He succeeded in saving their lives but in doing this he completed Aizen's work and created the Vizards. A mix between hollow and soul reaper with a soul reaper as starting point."

Ichigo took a deep breath. She had been story telling for a while now and it was beginning to taking its toll on her already. Emotionally she was beginning to feel exhausted. She rarely thought back to the past nowadays and when she did it always made her feel sad. It is true, that time heals wounds but that didn't mean time would also take away your pain. Recalling like this still hurt and the worst part had jet to come. Her own life and her own death.

"So you say you are part hollow, how does that work? You said your future friends underwent hollowfication does that mean you weren't there at the time, were there more experiments? And if there are such thinks as hollows how come we don't know about them?"

"Whow! Calm down Tairan. I was just ordering my thoughts for a bit. Give me a moment and I will resume my story."

Roughly one hundred years after Aizen's last experiment everything had settled down.

I was a normal 'living' 15 year old high school student at the time. Until my house was attacked by hollows. The neighborhood soul reaper couldn't handle the hollow and got injured by it. Seeing no other option she gave me her powers risking both her own and my live. As a temporary soul reaper I would stay alive and be able to slip out of my body whenever it was needed.

Because something went wrong in the power exchange. Rukia the soul reaper who had saved me had no power left. I had to do her job for her for the remaining time she would be in the human world.

What I didn't know was that it was illegal for a soul reaper to give their powers to a human. It didn't take long for Soul Society to realize what had happened and they came to collect Rukia. I was stripped of my powers and she would be executed in Soul Society.

Naturally I couldn't sit by knowing my new friend would be killed because she had helped me and my family. I went to Rukia's contact in the human world who had helped her stay hidden in the human world, Urahara Kisuke.

He helped me regain my powers and got me and a few friend of mine into Soul Society were we would save Rukia and against all expectations we succeeded in saving Rukia. However things went horribly wrong that day. Aizen betrayed the Soul Society, he stole Urahara's hogyoku which was craftily hidden inside Rukia and ran away to the Hueco Mundo together with two other captains.

After our invasion of the Soul Society I was granted permission to function as a substitute soul reaper was given the responsibility over my home town and returned home.

Once home I discovered that the way Urahara had given me my powers back had not made me into a soul reaper but a vizard. So I had no other option but to train with the other vizards. If I wanted control over my own body.

A good way along my training Aizen finally started the final phase of his plans. He lured me and my friends into the Hueco Mundo. Where we had to fight against his army of arrancar.

Arrancar are basically the same as vizards only the starting product was a hollow. Arrancar are not necessarily a product of the use of the hogyoku there are natural arrancar they are the final phase of hollow evolution. In which the hollow gets a Zanpakto is thus released of all the soul clutter inside it, looks more human and thinks more rational.

At the point when I finally realized what Aizen's true plans were it seemed we had been too late. Aizen was already in my home town trying to create the kings key which would give him access to the kings dimension. In order to create this key he would need to sacrifice the whole town.

The soul reapers had done all they could to save the town even the visords, who hate soul reapers, had come. In the end I did defeat Aizen with help from my father and Urahara however victory came at a price. A price I had to pay alone, all my spiritual power was gone. Forever I thought.

After that things returned to normal for me. No more hollow and no more soul reapers no more friends. They were all too busy hollow hunting and moving on with their lives to take good notice of me.

I turned 16 around this time got myself a job and became more forgiving to my friends.

However life didn't stay that way, soon I got contacted by a group called Xcution. They were humans born with the power to fullbring. A fullbringer ( a person who can fullbring) is born from a parent who had survived a hollow attack, the hollows residue power seeps into the unborn child and thus gives it the ability to fullbring.

The organization was made up of people who wanted to return to being normal human. For that they needed someone like me or rather what I had been. They needed a substitute soul reaper to take over their powers.

It was a win win situation I would get back my powers and they would get a normal human life. Foolishly I believed them and took the bait. It was a trap all they had wanted was to steel my power not to give it back.

In the and I won and got all my soul reaper powers back. Soul Society accepted me back in their ranks and all was well.

That was at least until the bloody war with the quincy happened. The quincy hadn't died out. They had just kept out of sight. Until it was the exact right moment to attack.

The soul reaper fought back hard and brave and both sides seemed equally matched. That was at least before the quincy started mobilizing arrancar to fight for them. Overwhelmed by the enormous size and power the quincys army suddenly possessed the soul reapers started losing and fast.

The soul reapers felt it was for the best to seal the Hueco Mundo. They asked me and some other people to stay there to regulate the soul balance that would be upset due to the sealing.

I trusted the soul reapers to win so I agreed to the sealing. This might be the stupidest mistake I made in my whole life. The soul reapers lost the battle and we were left to rot in the Hueco Mundo by the quincys.

The quincy must have died out somewhere after they killed all of the soul reapers. Their power upset the soul balance so much that life became nearly impossible on earth.

And then a miracle happened. I don't know what but something happened that created the world as you know it now. You see my earth was much smaller and had different vegetation than your earth.  
Years passed by and life evolved again until finally the IGO was created.

The IGO does a lot of research and not all of it is about food. Some of the research is about what you call the lost dimensions. Soul Society and the Hueco Mundo are examples of these dimensions.

After much research the IGO discovered a way to get into the Soul Society. Where they found documents about the soul balance and the importance of it to the soul reapers.

Deciding they needed to know more about this they opened the Hueco Mundo once again. Unaware of its disastrous effects.

Naturally the research team send there was eaten by hollows. After this the IGO realized just how dangerous hollows were and that this time there were no soul reapers to protect the humans.

Afraid it would cause mass panic all over the world the IGO kept it quiet and mobilized their own task force to destroy the hollows.

Now this is nothing to be worried about because the techniques they use are nothing like the quincys. But seeing all the problems they had me and all the other people who had been trapped in the Hueco Mundo decided to remobilized the soul reapers.

However after discovering what we were they turned on us. They said we were traitors. We had no other choice but to flee to the human world. Where we decided to split up.

I was found by Sumire and now we are sitting here."

"Okay I understand. However there are two things bothering me. If you are death, how come you have a body? And where is your Zanpakuto?"

"Oh, That. This is just a gigai, a fake body made by Kisuke. The levels in spiritual energy have gone up since I was alive but there are always exceptions so not everyone is able to see spirits. I basically need it to be visible for everyone.  
This gigai has also a special feature build into it that materializes my Zanpakuto outside it. Which means my Zanpakuto is what you see as my kitchen knife. His name is Zangestsu and don't worry it doesn't insult him anymore to be seen as such. Our bond has just gotten closer working together so much."

"Alright that's good. Now I have one last question for you. Do you want to eat my soul?"

"Hell no! Why would I want that? It is a relieve to be able to eat real food. Souls taste like crap you know."

"Okay, okay. I was just double checking if you really weren't dangerous. By the way does Sumire know about this? I do believe as your mother she has the right to know this."

"(sight), No she doesn't know. If I am ever found out by the IGO it will only cause her trouble to know all this. I don't want to hurt her."

"I understand your point. However I still think you should tell her and the IGO too. You may not see it that way but your secret heritage isn't so bad. You aren't a monster you know. I am sure if you explain it to them they will accept you for what you are and maybe even help you with your with your soul reaper problems."

"You are probably right. However I am not ready jet. It is still too painful for me. You have given me confidence it true. However you are one person. I don't think I (we) are ready to face a whole organization jet."

" Alright, if that is how you see it than I will let you be for now. But please remember it is not healthy to keep secrets. Especially not form your close family and friends."

Tairan sighted and got up from the chair near Ichigo's bed and left her room. She would need some sleep and it wasn't like he could open the shop now anyway. It was already passed midday and Ichigo had given him too much to think about.

Thank you for reading. Please review!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 11

The next morning Ichigo was in a really good mood. Tairan hadn't freaked out about her being a vizard he didn't see her as a monster and she wouldn't have to hide her hollow hunting as much. Which meant she would catch a little more sleep what would be great. Even if she didn't need it, it was still relaxing after a busy day of work.

Walking down the stairs she noticed that Tairan was already downstairs preparing breakfast.

"Good morning Tairan." Ichigo said.

"Ha, good morning to you too. Did you sleep well? We have to work extra hard today because of the unforeseen circumstances of yesterday." Tairan said. Busying himself with all kind of pots and pans standing on the stove.

"Yeah, I had a good long night rest for a change. I am sorry about yesterday I didn't mean to destroy your whole schedule."

"There is nothing to be sorry about. I am just glad I know the truth now. And about the schedule, the customers have just camped outside the door. That's why I said we had to work extra hard today. We have more customers than normally." Tairan said jokingly. He had never had to do a rescheduling of this size before. So he was actually a bit nervous about it.

It was a busy day indeed, even in the days after that they could still feel the rescheduling mistake Tairan made. Taking on double the costumers you normally had in one day is just exhausting.

Before Ichigo knew it. It was already time to leave. That last week had been amazing for her she had felt an enormous freedom like never before. It felt great to have nothing to hide anymore.

"See you in a month! Don't get any other pupils while I am gone!" Ichigo jelled towards Tairan from her train compartment as she drove away, back to her school life in Gourmet Town.

The train ride back home was much more quiet than it had been going away from the IGO. There were fewer shady people on the train. And the few who were there left her alone.

When she finally arrived at Gourmet Town Station. Sumire was there to greet her. It was a Sunday so there was no school today.

Seeing only Sumire standing there confirmed it to her. Nakaume had left. Ichigo felt a bit sad she couldn't see him right now. However she waited a whole year, she could wait a little longer and visit him later at his new job.

"Sumire, it's good to see you. How have you been?"

"Oh, I am fine my dear and all the people at the restaurant are fine to. However I am more interested in how your education with Tairan went. Did he take good care of you? Was he a good teacher?"

"Tairan was a great teacher to me. We had this instant click right from the start. He is really an amazing person. I can't thank you enough for convincing him to teach me! There is however one thing he said that worried me."

"What did he say that worried you?"

"Tairan said there was a possibility that the IGO would try and persuade me into taking a job here. And I don't think I want a job jet, there is so much left to learn. Plus I don't want to never be able to see my friend and teacher again because of where he lives."

"Sadly I think Tiaran might be right about the IGO. They don't like their young talent wandering in danger zones alone. However if you don't want to have a permanent job jet you don't have to. They can't pressure you into taking one. You can just reject any and all offers until you think you are ready."

"You have a point there." Ichigo said happily. "By the way where has Ume-chan gotten a job? I know he has one, otherwise he would be here to greet me."

"A couple of months ago he got a great offer to work at the Gourmet Tourism Public Company. His first flight left a week ago. I am afraid you have just missed him. But don't worry last time I spoke him he was very enthusiastic about it. He sends you his regards."

"That is too bad. Maybe I can see him next time." Ichigo was a little sad about this. She had been looking forward to seeing Nakaume again. Their relationship had suffered tremendously under their time apart. They had almost never had time to write each other.

As it turned out Ichigo did see Nakaume a few times in the months that followed. However it wasn't nearly as often as they would have liked.

Ichigo meanwhile as rejecting at least ten different job offers a month. The IGO was getting despaired she could tell. The job offers became for higher and higher functions until after 2 years of giving negative answers. Ichigo finally told the IGO staff member assigned to find her a job that she would only consider a job that would allow her some freedom to visit Tairan for extra study.

Her argument was that there was so much to learn that even if she took on a job now she wouldn't be satisfied knowing she could have learned more if she had stayed with Tairan.

Seeing no other option but to oblige her (the IGO couldn't singlehandedly stop her study, Sumire was paying for her) they worked in her extra demands. However even after this compromise it took Ichigo another year before she finally agreed to a job.

The job itself wasn't the super high class job the IGO had expected her to take. No, it was the position of sous chef at Hotel Gourmet.

Ichigo had been considering to just take one of job offers for a while now. Tairan had been nagging her the last few months that she was already 22 now and had to depend on herself from now on. He had agreed he would keep teaching her if she would get herself a job as quick as possible.

So when by sheer chance Komatsu had send her a letter telling her he had just been promoted to head chef and his restaurant was now looking for a new sous chef. Ichigo had immediately sent a letter to Hotel Gourmet asking them to grand her the job. Luckily for her they had agreed even with her extra demands.

Ichigo was really happy to have gotten a job involving one of her school friends. Their relationship had been falling apart. So she was relieved to be able to at least save her bond with Komatsu by working with him.

Thank you for reading. Please review!


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 12

Working at the Hotel Gourmet was fantastic, the people were nice and they arranged a lot of high class ingredients poisonous and normal for a 5 star restaurant. Ichigo enjoyed working with Komatsu. He had become a phenomenal chef in the time she had been way, even if he had stayed his old crybaby self.

When Ichigo had first arrived. It seemed that the management had told Komatsu they had found someone, however not whoever that person was. For him it had been a total surprise to see her standing in front of him stating she would be the new sous chef.

Completely Komatsu style he had run toward her and hugged her like she was the most precious gift in the whole world. Knowing Komatsu at the time it probably was, he had always been a peoples person he liked being around them as much as possible. Being apart must have concerned him more than Ichigo could have imagined.

Ichigo suspected all Komatsu's worrying had stopped his growth. They were now 24 years old and yet he still looked like 16 year old. Not that she had anything to say on this matter, she hadn't grown either since her death. However she had had an early growth spurt at least she looked like she was 18 maybe 19 years old.

Today would be the first time in two years she would be going to visit Tairan again. Ichigo had planned this trip a while ago and she had made sure there weren't any important events she had to be available for. But even with all her planning the director had managed to screw up. He had taken on a plan for large dinner party for the IGO's directors and president at Hotel Gourmet scheduled exactly in the week that she would be away.

It didn't change Ichigo's plans however. She would still visit Tairan. She had done as much preparations as she could. She detoxified all the poison ingredients they would be using to impress the client and made one of her specialties 'Red meat eating poison mushroom cream soup'*. They only had to preserve it at exactly the right conditions and everything would be fine.

Reassured she wouldn't be needed Ichigo got on the train on her way to Tairan. Working at Hotel Gourmet had made her so busy that she had been able to forget how much she missed him. However now on the train her desire to see her friend again and her thirst for knowledge was fiercer than ever.

Tairan was already waiting for her at the station when she arrived.

"Tairan, it is good to finally see you again! How are things going at the shop?" Ichigo said beaming happiness from her face. Her eternal grumpiness had lessened over the years, at least toward her friends. She still had some problems serving rude costumers without beating them up. It was one of the main reasons she was almost never to be found outside of the kitchen. Plus she wasn't allowed to carry Zangestu out into the costumers area. Some costumers found it scary to see a young girl carrying such a big knife. (customers service had always been her worst class)

"It is good to see you too Ichigo. Like always the shop is busy but nothing I can't manage on my own. How is your new job. Your letter only asked for a visit. I am really curious about it."

"Well… I just thought it would be more enjoyable to tell you in person. You see I got this amazing job at Hotel Gourmet. A school friend of mine Komacchan…."

Ichigo and Tairan had a very pleasant conversation. Ichigo talked the most about her new job, friends and the grand dinner that she unfortunately had to miss. Tairan mostly listened sometimes talking about what kind of ingredients he had gotten lately.

It was a great day for both of them. To Ichigo it felt like coming home. It was weird because she had gotten her own little apartment nearby Hotel Gourmet. But that apartment felt less like a home that her bedroom in Tairan's house. It was probably because he had been one of the first people aside from school she had really had close contact with. She saw him as her family and family always brightens up a home.

Ichigo hadn't even made it half way her visit before she got a call from a very distressed Smith.  
Smith is the general manager at Hotel Gourmet, he is in charge of the schedule and they reputation as a high class restaurant.

After not being able to calm Smith down over the phone. Ichigo had no other option but to return to Hotel Gourmet as soon as possible to do damage management. So she quickly explained her situation to Tairan and said her goodbyes.

On her train ride back to Hotel Gourmet Ichigo reevaluated all the information she had gotten out of Smith. Now that her stress levels were down to normal again it all began to sound really weird, fairytale like almost. The story Smith had told her came down to this:

Some evil IGO official had made some last minute changes to their menu. Komatsu had gone on the noble quest of finding a hero to get them the new ingredient needed. Komatsu had found a King prepared to do this task. They had run of together to some island to find and defeat an ancient crocodile to serve at the dinner party.

If Komatsu ad been a princess and the crocodile had grown a pair of wings and the ability to spit fire she would have thought Smith was telling her a Gourmet fairytale. The kind of story a mother reads her 7 year old child to inspire it to become a handsome Gourmet knight or a lovely kitchen princess.

However Smith was not her mother and she wasn't a 7 year old so it had gotten her suspect that this might be more serious than it seemed. It was not often that she heard stories like these. Better yet there had never been a emergency like this at the restaurant before. Not in the two years she had worked there at least. Ichigo was left wondering what was really going on.

Thank you for reading. Please review!

*I am just making up names now. Feel free to suggest ingredients, I am sure I am going to need some in the future.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 13

Once her train arrived Ichigo immediately hailed a cab to take her to the hotel. There she took the staff entrance leading directly to the kitchen where she addressed a waiter to call manager Smith for her. He had a lot more to explain to her than the stupid fairytale she heard over the phone.

"Manager Smith, what is going on?"

"Ichigo-san, I am so happy you are here. Ever since you left everything has gone wrong.

You see Uumen Umeda came by to inspect the menu and he was unsatisfied with the main dish. He changed it to Galala Gator meat which can't be bought on the normal stock market. We had to hire a bishokuya for this which wasn't too bad because the IGO covered the expenses. Komatsu was the one to pick the hunter, he chose Heavenly king Toriko. Who could make the trip just in time to give us enough preparation time before the party. However Komatsu was so impressed by the man that he decided to go with him. "

To say Ichigo was unhappy was an understatement. There were so many holes in the plan that had been made that it was more see trough than a window.

First of all there was the fact that Komatsu was in lethal danger. This was not something the plans or the manager could be blamed for. It had been Komatsu's own stupid idea to go along with a bishokuya on a hunting trip. However the fact stayed that she could lose one of her closest friends and could do nothing about it.

Secondly there was the problem of time. The planning was horrible. If something went wrong they would make it in time and there would be no main dish for the party. The order of White-haired Cinderella Cattle had already been canceled.

And thirdly Toriko wasn't a reliable hunter. Sure he is one of the best hunters but he also has a reputation as a glutton. It was too often that he ate the client's requested food instead of delivering it.

Ichigo told the manager of her concerns, who immediately got even more stressed. It seemed that he wasn't much to rely on in dire situations. He looked ready to faint on that instant. It seemed like she had to do this all by herself again.

It had been a long time since Ichigo had been the one giving orders. After she had been exiled from Soul Society she didn't feel the need any more to lead. Of course she liked having control over her life but you wouldn't find her in the role of leader very often anymore.

One could say that she had gotten tired of it. However old habits die had so at this opportunity she decided it would be best to do things her own way.

With her mind made up Ichigo began to set her plans into motion. First she had to speak to director Uumen Umeda. It was always a hard thing to admit to a client that faults had been made however, she had to do this. If she didn't there would be no main dish to serve and then they would be in even more trouble. Plus if she admitted to the mistake now it would make it a shared burden. It had been Uumen Umeda who had wanted to change the main dish after all.

Standing in front of Uumen Umeda's office Ichigo finally began to feel the nervousness settle in. She was going to meet Uumen Umeda after all, not only was he the client but he was also from what she had heard a very eccentric personality. Which translates to an unpredictable personality and could pose a problem for her.

Ichigo knocked on his door.

"Come in." Ichigo heard a voice form the inside say to her. As expected from the modern building the door didn't give a squeak as it was opened. "Hmm~, and who might you be? I don't recall having planed a meeting with a lady caliber. I am quite sure I would have remembered if I did."

"Yes, your right we haven't had the pleasure of meeting before, let me introduce myself. I am Ichigo the sous chef of Hotel Gourmet." Ichigo said, she was quite amazed at Uumen Umeda's looks. He was very… 'special' if she could put it that way.

"Ah, yes, I remember hearing about you. You have quite the reputation, you specialize in poison cooking don't you?"

"I do, however that is not what I came here for today. I came today on behave of Hotel Gourmet. We can't be sure that the Galala Gator meat will be delivered on time for the party. You surely can't arrange a party with such uncertainty."

"(sight), I expected for this to happen sooner or later. You are quite right miss, but there is no other option. You can't simply serve world leaders something that is far beneath their statue."

"I know that. Even if you had agreed to the old menu we couldn't do it anymore, we canceled the order on White-haired Cinderella Cattle we had. It is almost impossible to get such a grand order for meat in one go… unless, unless the IGO would be able to help. Director, how is the progress on the Galala Gators cloning?"

"Why the sudden interest? We are doing great by the way, we just have to do some more quality test and then the news will be ready to be made public."

"Well if you are that far along. Why not secure Hotel Gourmet a portion of meat for the party. That way it there are any complications, there will still be Gator meat and we can call it a celebration of one of the IGO's successes."

"To be honest, that is a pretty good idea. I will have to run it through with the president and then speed up the quality tests. But it could certainly be an option. Thank you for stopping by miss Ichigo. You will hear from me."

And hearing from him she did. Ichigo had been right. Well about most of it. Against all odds Komatsu had actually survived. However he an Toriko hadn't been on time for the preparations and they didn't have Galala Gator meat. All the meat they had was a squirmy leech that had apparently lived in the Gators mouth. Naturally Toriko didn't receive any pay.

They had been really lucky that everything turned out as it did. But Ichigo intended to leave her cellphone at home next time she took a trip to Tairan. Doing the managers work was way to stressful.

Thank you for reading. Please review!


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